How to Use Burnt Compact Florescent Light Circuit Module

Introduction: How to Use Burnt Compact Florescent Light Circuit Module

Note and precautions: CFL's contain mercury which is hazardous material, so it should be handled accordinglyMost CFL lamps, electronic circuits are working perfect and are still useable, only the bulb goes defective. CFL circuit of 18-24 Watts are useful for the activation ofreplacement type two feet 18-20 Watt Florescent Tube Light bulb.

Step 1: Find a CFL

You will need a CFL as shown in picture. Any CFL of which bulb is defective, broken or has outlive its life is useful for this modification. Drive voltage may be according to your country 110 Volt or 220 Volts. In my country (Pakistan) voltage standard is 220/230 Volts.

Step 2: Disassemble

Disassemble the CFL as shown in the picture. Note there is a single pair of wires/connections which goes to the 110/220 Volts. other side has two pair of wires 9four wires) these will be connected to the replacement type 20 Watt 24" Florescent Light bulb. After disassembling you will need electronic module from it. Check carefully there are no burnt parts on it. Using multimeter check its diodes, fuse etc. some time fuse is found melted you can replace it or bridge with a very thin copper wire.

NOTE;- DO IT IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH ELECTRIC/ELECTRONICS EXPERIENCE

Step 3: Parts Required

You will need a replacement type Florescent Light bulb of 18 or 20 Watts type and hardware to hold the tube bulb and ofcourse salvaged electronic module from the CFL.

Step 4: CFL Module Wiring

Rewire appropriate length of wires as shown, say about 4 to 6 inches.

Step 5: Mounting and Assembling

mount the parts and assemble. Note the CFL module shold be mounted on an insulated plate. I used a piece of Plexiglas and fixed the CFL module with a hot glue on it. For extending connections, use terminal blocks.

Step 6: Connect to Light Up

Now after assembling check all connections taking care there should be no loose connection. Now power up!!!. I have assembled three such units successfully.

Great !dea .... but for me i make use of burned out CFL by using its top as adapter for bulb holder.

I found CFLs are bad for lighting house. Earlier i used to replace Tube-light fitting with CFLs. But soon i realise that the light emitted by CFLs are not good for reading & doing jobs. More over CFLs cant be used for hand lamps for doing jobs as the light emitted by CFLs lack penetrating property in the darkness. In other words "CFLs are big failure". Light emitted by CFLs goes on deceasing with the age of cfl.

On other hand i found LED lights excellent. I now replaced my CFLs & Tube fittings with LED lights, by which i m getting excellent result.

I prefer 21 Watt LED tube light is enough to brighten 130 - sq feet room. For larger rooms , 2 or more tube light can be fitted. LEDs have very long life.

I opened up exactly such a Philips lamp today (in South Africa) and it is pretty similar instead of the rectifier bridge on the bottom of the board, this one has 4 x 1n4007 diodes and a 3.3uF 400V electrolytic capacitor (4.7 in your image). Inspect that capacitor carefully. On mine it is bulging slightly, indicating that it's probably cooked a bit. I suspect it was cooked by the lamp heat, as 400V should be more than sufficient for the 325VDC (remember, 230VAC is RMS, peak will be higher). If the cap is bulging, don't use it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see the electronics being recycled. What is the voltage that drives the various CFL tubes? It would appear to me that many of the power supplies provide 400VDC to the tubes. Is this correct? Do any of them provide higher voltages? The Sky Pirate

Hi, this is was a great info. thanks for everything. Just a query, I have a CFL lamp, it needs a electronic ballast, works with 2 pins only as seen in the pic, can you suggest what needs to be done. cheers

It was good recycling of CFL Circuit detaily explained project .I would like to ask you as I got circuit from old burnt out 8W CFL Blub .can I use for 18W Florescent light. will it work or I had replace some components on circuit, and does this circuit from CFL save electric consumption do reply....

Hello,
this is understandable and easy to accomplish. And I am interested for same thing but in car usage (12 V). do you have any ideas or instructions about using good parts of CFL with smaller fluo tube which can fit in rear part (trunk) of a car.
Thank you!

The straight flouro tube has two pins at each end. There is a low-wattage incandescent coil between the two pins at each end; just connect the two pins from one end to the wires that are next to each other on the electronics board, and the same for the other end of the tube - you should have four wires on the board which were originally connected to the spiral tube. Try to imagine the spiral tube "unwound" into a straight tube and you'll see how it works.

It's a good idea, I have a lot of dead cfl circuit and standbyusing them as sources of high voltage, now installing it on oldlamps with ballast heavy and noisy, sonoise disappears and the ignition will be faster.

chub2 you don't have to modify the circuit for a 26W to 40W tube, the main concept is add some heat sink around the transistors or ground the tube mettalic housing to. However all in all just try and implement the procedure in this instructable and you may be surprised that it works, For tubes they only fail to work because it fails to strike on, putting your hands near the tube makes it strike (grounding)